


Whispers in the Dark

by LilyofAzra



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dancing around cannon, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Gene and Mai are BFFs, M/M, Multi, Soul Bond, Soulmarks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 11:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19723045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyofAzra/pseuds/LilyofAzra
Summary: There were things from that summer Mai couldn't remember. She didn't let it bother her. Much. But ever since she met Naru, she kept having odd dreams about him. The two of them together, running from someone. Mai half felt like she met him before, but that was as impossible as recieving a soul mark.





	Whispers in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amavanna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amavanna/gifts).



**Prologue**

Mai dreamed of a boy.

In the morning, she would forget. She would wake to her heart racing, the faint taste of fear, and a horrible sense of loss. 

For now, she dreamed of a boy. Perhaps a little older than her with a gentle smile, eager energy, and an occasional distant blue gaze. It was a pleasant dream, full of sun and the brief scent of sandlewood.

The dream shifted. Thunder rumbled and storm clouds gathered. Running, her feet slapped against muddy bank. The dark water of a lake rippled in the full moon. His hand firmly pulled hers forward, but he didn't glance back. Together, they leapt over twisted roots, dodged through skeletal branches. Racing forward, quicker and quicker till the hard cement of the road. Mai gasped for breath. But the boy kept them going, down the shoulder of the road. They were almost there.

The relief as they made it to a building, washed over her. But the boy’s eyes widened in horror. Something pulled her back.

She was falling. 

A hand on her shoulder. Then another grabbing her arms, her legs, pulling her down. There was darkness beneath her. He reached out, calling her name. Arms wrapped around the boy as well, bringing him down too. Further and further, they went. Unseen hands constricting around her, pulling her down _through_ the ground. She couldn't break free, couldn't even scramble to attempt to halt her descent. She was _falling_. 

Her eyes snapped open. A hand automatically traced the faint scar against the back of her head. The dream faded. Only the vague sense of dread remained, along with the sound of her heart pounding too loudly. She looked at the alarm. Hours still before school started, but she couldn't go back to sleep. As she slid out of bed and made herself tea, she thought of what ghost story she would tell to her friends that after noon. Maybe the one about the red coat. 

* * *

In an empty classroom, Mai told ghosts stories with her friends. Unaware that all the ghost stories, she spoke with not quite a whisper, were true. They laughed with their fear, but it felt like lead in her stomach. As her friend spoke of the old abandoned school house, the overwhelming sense that she was forgetting washed through her.

“Four.”

The others screamed. The lights turned on. Mai was silent, turning to the intruder. Her heart racing. The boy gave a smile as the others approached him. It rang false. Fake, artificial. Wrong somehow despite how attractive he was. But there was also something familiar about him. Pain laced through her head, throbbing from the scar on the back of her head. 

“Seventeen.” He answered their questions. That wasn’t an answer. He should have said third year or senior, but he didn’t. It was odd. 

“Kazuya.” His eyes were cold for all that he smiled at them. She could shake off the feeling that she knew him. His face was familiar. 

* * *

His brother wasn’t dead.

His parents didn’t believe him. Madako didn’t believe him. Lin said nothing. A loud nothing that followed him to Japan as his parents and the others of BSPR protested. Noll didn’t care. He should have gone with Eugene. His brother had begged him for days to accompanied him. But Noll hadn’t been able to, there were too many edits for his thesis. Despite having successfully defended, his committee had given him a plethora of comments. Little insightful things that had led him down a whole new avenue of looking into books. Madako had gone so far as to tease him about his lack of mentioning their most popular field. 

Soul mates.

Noll hadn’t included one snippet about  _ that _ subject. In all honesty, it was his least favorite. Appropriately, the topic was Gene’s favorite. That stupid medium who had mentioned that he could sense soulmates sometimes, even point them out. It was something to do with the way their spirits resonate.

‘They’re colorful.’ His brother once tried to explain, a smile on his face. Gene always smiled. Noll made a point of not doing so. ‘Ghosts are faded. Their spirits are mostly white, but there are hints of what colors they once had.’

‘It’s not measurable.’ Noll had merely scoffed. ‘Therefore irrelevant to my studies.’

Gene merely gave him an odd look. ‘If you had one would you say the same. I could-’

‘I don’t want to know.’ Noll cut him off. He had no need for such distractions.

Now, as he stared at his new employee, he couldn’t help but remember that conversation. Mai probably loved the idea of soulmates. Noll caught a book in her bag with the ‘Soulmates: What are They and What do They Mean.’ At least it was one of the more educational varieties. Noll didn’t care what she read as long as they didn’t take on any of those bogus cases where they were asked to  _ find  _ soulmates.

Noll had better things to do like finding his twin.

“Naru.” Mai’s voice interrupted his musings, she hesitated at the door way with a tray of tea, clearly nervous. The name was so close to Noll that he had been completely startled when she first said it. How had she guessed at it? 

“What is it Mai?” He answered back, glad that he could speak with her fluently, glad he could hide who he was. 

“I made some tea. Though you didn’t have any um...good...leaves so I brought some. Anyway, I thought you might like a cup.” She put the cup down on his desk, steam curled up. It was green tea. He didn’t much care for the blend, but he would try it since she bothered to make it.

“Thank you, Mai.” Noll folded the map he was staring at. Somewhere on it held Gene’s location, he just couldn’t find him. It was almost as if  _ something  _ was blocking his psychometry. Noll wasn’t sure if that was possible or not. His parents thought his brother  _ dead _ and that was why he couldn’t get anything more from him. 

“Is there anything else you wanted me to do?” She toed the floor in the doorway, tray in front of her.

“Here,” Noll picked up a book out from the shelf. “Either read this or go through newspapers clippings. Sometimes there are interesting cases that can be found.”

“Thanks.” 

Their fingers touched. Noll was startled by how warm hers were, but she was just making tea. He nodded and Mai left the room. Shaking his head, he took a tentative taste of the tea.

A smooth flavor blossomed over his tongue and the temperature was just right.

Noll stared at the cup. He normally disliked green tea, but this, this was something else entirely. Looks like Mai did possessed some unique talents. Maybe he should add making tea to her job description. 

Noll took another sip, let the warmth seep into him, and opened the map again. The afternoon kept at a peaceful pace. As after noon turned to eveing,  he was on the third and regretful last cup as Mai had just taken off. Noll was trying to use Gene’s black coat again to feel for him. In frustration, he threw it across the room as Lin came into the office.

“Any luck?” 

“Nothing. I still just get the moment where he falls into the dark and then just nothing. Like some turned off the screen.”

“No green screen?”

“He isn’t dead.” Noll knew it, with utter certainty. He could feel him when he grabbed one of Gene’s things, but only that scene, over and over again. The disappearance of a girl, Noll couldn’t make out her features, then something pulling him down.

Noll took a sip of the tea, trying to calm his concern. He knew they were on a race against time, but if Gene had managed to survive this long then hopefully he could hold out for a while longer. 

“Why did you hire that girl? Is it because she is an orphan too?” Lin was the one who had done the background check, as he waited at the hospital for Noll to finish the case. 

“She likes ghost stories.” Noll answered simply. “She’s engeritic.”

“You mean she remind you of Gene.” Lin shook his head. Noll knew the other wasn’t pleased in the slightest that he hired her, but he thought that Lin was mostly ignoring her. Even if Mai greeted him every single day in such a warm manner.

“Also didn’t you hate green tea?” Lin raised an eyebrow at him, his face otherwise stoic.

“Taste buds change.” Noll stared down, the cup was empty. Every day, he found more and more justification for his spur of the moment employment of the girl. Even if their company was more of a sham, used to mask their search for Gene. 

“Naru.” Lin had picked up on Mai’s pronunciation of Noll. How she had come across that Noll didn’t know? Though he suspected that she might be a latent physic, what type remains to be seen. “What happened? What is the last thing you saw? I know you told your father, but…”

“Hands grabbing him, and pulling him into darkness. Then nothing.” Noll shivered. He had watched the scene every night since they arrived here. “It might be possible for something to block my psychometry.”

Lin merely nodded.

“He could still be alive.” Noll continued, maybe trying to reassure himself more than Lin. His vision hadn’t gone green. There was still hope. Noll could hope. 

“Are you ready to head back to the hotel? The professor sent me an email saying he wanted you to call him.”

Of course his mother wanted him to call. His parents hadn’t even wanted him to leave, for all that seventeen was basically considered an adult. His mother had been especially tearful. They were the ones who thought Gene was dead. Noll should never had told them about the vision. 

“Yes.” He folded up the map. It wasn’t giving him any answers. “Let’s go.” 

“You really do mean to keep the girl on then?” Lin sounded resigned.

“Yes.There’s something about her.” Noll couldn’t deny that he received some amusement from teasing her and her overall enthusiasm. He didn’t have to guess what she was thinking; it was written all over her face. He never met someone so easy to tease before. As he passed Mai's desk, he saw the books she left behind. One he lent to her about ghost and the other:

‘Soulmates: What are They and What do They Mean.’  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Prologued revised 7.17.19. Current aim is biweekly (as in every other week). We'll see how far this goes. Yes, there will be soul marks. It's just going to appear later and be explained. (Total sucker for soulmate stories.) Hints to episode one/chapter one from the anime/manga in this chapter. Please let me know what you think, or if you just want to guess at some things.


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